Six Tips for Supercharging Safari
Although Safari improves with every version released, it remains difficult for one browser to cater for everyone’s needs. Firefox has successfully approached this problem through the use of Add-Ons, but Safari continues to lack any widely promoted form of plugin or extension functionality.
Despite this, I still remain a huge fan of Safari’s simplicity and speed and am reluctant to switch to another browser. Fortunately, several different methods remain for enhancing and “supercharging” Safari. Today I’ll be taking a look at six applications and tweaks for getting more out of Apple’s latest browser — from saving passwords more effectively to downloading video content.
1. Banishing Flash
Flash is a web technology that can be used to great effect for enhancing design, displaying video, and offering better typography. Unfortunately it is commonly abused and over-used, leading to a frustrating browser experience.
Click to Flash is a plugin for disabling Flash on every webpage by default, providing a simple placeholder instead. If you’d like the Flash content to display, just click the placeholder. You can also right-click and add a site to your white-list, always automatically displaying Flash content in the future.
Although this may seem like a fairly unusual plugin, it can dramatically speed up the loading times of websites. Flash content is commonly used for advertisements or unnecessary animation and, the small number of times you do actually want to view the Flash content, it’s only one click away.
2. Saving Passwords
The default password saving functionality built into Safari is fairly good, but far from perfect. First, it isn’t all that secure — anyone using your computer can login with a saved password. Second, there’s no way to automatically store a password when creating a new account on a website.
1Password is a Safari plugin which can help enormously with password storage, and remains incredibly secure. It allows you to store multiple logins for a site, set a “master password” to unlock all your saved details, and will automatically fill and submit login forms for you.
It’s priced at $39.95, but can save an enormous amount of time. A companion iPhone application is also available, so you can keep all your passwords with you on-the-go.
3. Glims
Glims offers a wide “cocktail” of different features to Safari and can improve many different aspects of the user interface. After using it for a few weeks, you may wonder how you ever managed without it. A few of my favorites are:
- The ability to add thumbnails to Google and Yahoo search results
- The addition of full-screen browsing capability
- Auto-closing of the download window (how many times have you needed to close that pesky window!)
- Automatically organize downloads by date
- Adds website icons in each Safari tab
Each feature can be turned on or off as you require. The only downside is that you may notice a slight slow-down in Safari performance. Nothing too critical, but it can be slightly frustrating at times.
4. Easy Tweeting
Although a plethora of desktop Twitter clients are available for OS X, there’s no harm in adding a simple way to tweet in Safari itself. After all, it’s probably where you first encounter a link or website worth sharing with your followers.
Safari 140 adds a basic plugin to Safari, which will auto-fill a new tweet with the current URL (automatically shortened, of course). After setting it up with your Twitter login credentials, it can save a huge amount of time. Safari 140 won’t replace a dedicated desktop client, however — it’s purely for posting quick links.
5. Block Those Ads
Many of us would enjoy browsing the Internet far more without the presence of advertisements. Sure, they’re a vital way for websites to generate income, but occasionally we all need an ad-free day.
Safari AdBlock is a simple, free plugin that aims to strip advertisements from websites as you browse. It works surprisingly well and can lead to a far less cluttered web experience.
AdBlock: Before and After
One welcome feature of AdBlock is its ability to clean up a page’s layout after removing the advertisements. This means that a site is not left with large, gaping spaces where sponsorship slots used to be.
6. Easily Download Videos
Much of the web’s video content is served through Flash and can be difficult to download for later viewing. Few plugins are better at assisting with this process than CosmoPod, which works with almost all sites serving video content.
Not only will CosmoPod download video content, but with one click the plugin can download the file, convert it to an iTunes/iPod compatible format, and place it in your iTunes library. Everything integrates with the Safari interface for a seamless downloading experience.
What do you use?
I would be interested to hear any plugins or tweaks you use for enhancing Safari. I firmly believe that it’s the best browser available for OS X, but am enthusiastic about finding ways to make the app perform better and make my life easier!
Tweet This (38)
Lee on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
Wow, as a fellow Safari user I really appreciate a bunch of these. Ban Flash. Count me in; Click to Flash is just what I’ve been looking for! I already have 1Password for my iTouch and thinking of upgrading to Pro and OSX version. Also Safari 140, Safari AdBlock, and CosmoPod are going to be fantastic enhancements.
Thanks!
Sajid Khan on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:48 am
After Inquisitor stopped supporting Google search, I switched to Glims, which is significantly better. The UI might not be as nice, but it’s really feature packed. I too love the auto-close download window feature!
Sajid Khan on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:49 am
Oh, and I don’t know where I’d be without my trusty 1Password!
Galley on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Inquisitor still supports Google searches.
I’d like to add Saft to the list of Safari add-ons.
Alexander on July 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
to me Inquisitor stopped to work with Google search since April. (I guess Google changed the API, Glims was updated, but not Inquisitor).
I am not using it anymore, just Glims, that I recommend, does a great job and is updated all the time.
Furthermore, Inquisitor has a bad support system!
Alexander on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 am
I appreciate all these applications. I am using it since the beginning of this year, with no problem at all. I also would like to recommend Safari Cookies at
http://sweetpproductions.com/safaricookies/
Really useful!
Thanks for this post.
anonymous on July 22nd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
You can set a master password without using 1-password.
You just directly go to Applications –> Utilities and open Keychain,
where all the passwords entered through Safari (and 1-password) is kept.
You can then set a master password, etc.
I think Keychain is rather under-appreciated by the community.
Alexander Klar on July 22nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Hey, thank you for the hints. As a far more serious adblocking service I recommend GlimmerBlocker – it installs system-wide, thus blocking ads in every browser and SSB. It works as a proxy, but is really simple to set up.
Philz on July 29th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
But unfortunately, it slows down loading times.
JohnnyC on July 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
My favourite plug-in for safari is Cool Iris ( http://www.cooliris.com )
It is hands down, the fastest way to search and navigate results when looking for images, and video, from many different popular sources.
Forget about clicking “next” for the subsequent pages of results. One continuous silky smooth cover-flow is all you need. It’s saved me a lot of time for both work, and personal use.
Galley on July 22nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I like Safari AdBlock, but it blocks streaming video such as ABC.com, and MLB.TV. Is there a way to add certain domains to a safe list?
Daniel Folsom on July 22nd, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I wish there was a simple plugin JUST for full-screen browsing; I occasionally use web-apps that really call for full-screen Safari in order to be fully useful.
Steve on July 22nd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Saft is most important; wondering, that you didn’t mention this fine piece.
Mister_L on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I second that. Tried nearly every plugin, but the only really important one –at least for me– is “Saft”. Autosaves Tabs , blocks ads etc. etc. : http://haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/
Frudov on July 22nd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Here’s a few things I’ve done that seem to greatly speed up Safari:
1. I do this *constantly*, and eventually wrote an applescript for it–it speeds up launching Safari from 5+ jumps in the dock to 1-2. Trash this folder:
~/Library/PubSub/Feeds
I forget exactly what it does and I don’t care–there’s no negative side to trashing it that I can tell. (It’s some kind of cache, keeps coming back, is unnecessary, and if you haven’t removed it before it could be very, very large)
2. Used glims to get rid of the Favicons.
3. Even though I keep trying, I am always disappointed how badly Cooliris slows down Safari. If you’ve installed it try removing it if you’ve got speed problems.
Kyle on July 22nd, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Keywurl is a big time saver for me. ( http://alexstaubo.github.com/keywurl/ ).
Leandro on July 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I love Keywurl!
DAC on July 27th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Very cool – thanks Kyle – great Plugin!
max31 on July 22nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I don’t use any plugins yet, but I’ve never cared for the bookmarking of Safari, especially with Firefox 3 doing such a good job. Would try bookmarking plugins for Safari if there are any good ones.
Frudov on July 22nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Ooh, I second Keywurl. That and SafariPlus to manage cookies. HEY!!! It’s a new version called Safari Cookies! I haven’t tried it yet but hopefully it’s as good as the original.
http://web.mac.com/jrc/SafariPlus/
lazyj on July 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Glimmerblocker is better for ad-blocking than Safari AdBlock, PithHelmet, etc…..
Zack on July 22nd, 2009 at 4:13 pm
This isnt a plug-in really, but I use X-Marks!! It is awesome. I have a PC and a Mac. On the PC it syncs my firefox and windoze explorer bookmarks (if i ever use my PC haha) and on my mac, it sycs my firefox and safari bookmarks. So essentially, it syncs up all 4 of my internet browsers so i always have any bookmark!
Alexander Klar on July 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Oh, and did someone mention already, that Glimmerblocker is not only the most versatile ad-blocker. It also does, what Keywurl is doing: extending search queries you type into the address bar.
Tom Reestman on July 22nd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I hadn’t thought of using Glims to override Safari’s belief that Google and Yahoo were the only search engines around. Now I have Bing as my default.
leon on July 22nd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
i just want stumbleupon in safari, then i will use it. I will use firefox until then.
Bevan on July 22nd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
All of the above mentioned are good, and is which I use as well (glims, cooliris), but I always have a nosey on http://pimpmysafari.com/ for any other useful plagins & ad-ons for a play around.
Andrew Bednarz on July 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
The plugins I can’t live without are
- AdBlock
- Keywurl
- 1Password
Chris Wanja on July 22nd, 2009 at 9:48 pm
TabExpose (http://cocoamug.com/tabexpose/index.html) – view your safari tabs as expose screens. I think it is something like six bucks USD. Great plugin.
Mason Taylor on July 22nd, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Agreed. TabExpose is fantastic. Great article!
Jono on July 23rd, 2009 at 3:39 am
It looks like a good idea. But every time I’ve tried it there was a painful delay from clicking the button to the tabs actually appearing.
Aaron on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:13 pm
How is it that no-one has mentioned DeliciousSafari yet? http://delicioussafari.com/
Michael Cheung on July 23rd, 2009 at 1:38 am
Fantastic stuff guys! Can’t wait to try these tricks later this week!
Jono on July 23rd, 2009 at 3:42 am
I really like SafariStand. It’s does some things that Glims does, but not everything. I particularly like the sidebar tab thumbnail previews (like OmniWeb).
John on July 25th, 2009 at 8:54 am
CRASHING?
Safari has never crashed for me before – but after a friend sent me this page I loaded a bunch of them and now it crashes everytime I run safari for more than a few pages…. Anyone have a solution? Anyone know how to restore to before I added these apps or how to delete them?
In FIREFOX – you just have “add-ins” and they are easy to remove.
HELP….
elflako_33 on July 25th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
ClickToFlash seems to be great, but I happen to have a PC @ work and this is not compatible with windows! ! ! : (
DAC on July 27th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I’ve had a major prob. with ClickToFlash, which I should let the developer know about. It works amazingly – but one day, it started slowing down browsing, and it got slower and slower – everything was clean – cache – limited history, computer fast, etc… I knew it was the Plugin. Eventually it completely ruined Safari… it literally could not do anything, even when I took Safari off my Mac, and re-downloaded it, it still was a mess, so I took it off again, and trashed ClickToFlash, and re-downloaded Safari… everything is like it was… super fast. I have a feeling other people might have this problem. It almost felt like a virus got through somewhere, I dunno.
But the idea of ClickToFlash is A+, just has some bugs to get worked out. Maybe I’ll try it again after a few updates.
ONE IMPROVEMENT THOUGH:
I know Safari’s “Top Sights” has gotten some iffy reception, atleast from what I’ve read, I think it’s sweet, but takes an incredibly long time to load the first time you use it, and sometimes there-after. It makes Safari look bad when a new Mac user tries Safari the first time – clicks on “Top Sights” and it just sits there with weird empty windows – even the preset “Top Sights” take forever to load. I helped my brother get his new MacBook Pro up, and when I saw this happening in Safari… it was embarrassing, really. I’m telling him how amazing everything is, and then this comes along.
BUT: to make it run a little quicker – just click “large” on the bottom right of the “Top Sights” page (after you click “edit” on the bottom left), it only has to load 4 top sights instead of like 30. Though after long term use – “Top Sights” gets a little quicker for some reason as it gets to know you – but for some reason as well, it has trouble opening Youtube – if you have a YouTube account, and it’s in your “Top Sights”, it very often is blank and just shows a white box in the middle of it, even if you sit a wait for a sec. The same with Google Maps too, I dunno, might just be a random thing. Great posting though, much thanks !
BWW on August 16th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
David, thanks much for these. I just started using Glims.
You asked for plugin feedback. I use CoolIris constantly and was so glad when it became available for Safari.
Mark E on September 7th, 2009 at 1:30 am
I use pithhelmet to block ads and love it. It offers extensive customization for site preferences, but out of the box I find that it does a fine job. (Except for one major national newspaper site, which is effective in blocking pithhelmet.) I use saft for several nice tweaks (this in Tiger) such as downloading to dated folders; crtl-dragging web pages; closing the downloads window; and tab control. It also offers keystroke assignments.
I’ve also used applescript to resize windows; to tile topmost two windows side by side, sized to my screen; and have adapted existing scripts to search selected text from Safari in google (in a new window) and to map selected address in google maps. Applescript is key.
Here is the maps script:
set targetApp to (path to frontmost application as Unicode text)
tell application targetApp to activate
tell application “System Events”
tell process targetApp
keystroke “c” using {command down}
delay 1
end tell
end tell
set mytarget to “http://maps.google.com?q=” & (the clipboard)
(* display dialog “my target is ” & mytarget *)
tell application “Safari” to activate
tell application “System Events”
tell process “Safari”
open location (mytarget)
end tell
end tell
One of my favorite safari scripts is Red Sweater Software’s script to advance to the next page of search results. Fantastic! I also use fastscripts to assign keystrokes to scripts, and have assigned cmd+apostrophe to that script. I have assigned cmd+semi-colon to go to previous page across apps. (With all of the app-specific keystrokes, I try to maintain whatever cross-app keystrokes I can.)